Editor's note: Both candidates for mayor of Cincinnati are hurtling toward Election Day with one nagging criticism they haven't been able to shake. For challenger Yvette Simpson, it's that she has accomplished little as a councilwoman. For incumbent John Cranley, it's that he's abrasive. The Enquirer's Sharon Coolidge, who has covered City Hall since spring 2014, investigates with stories on both.

Cincinnati mayoral candidate Yvette Simpson has been a council member for six years, but some voters might be hard-pressed to remember her legislative accomplishments.

Simpson's supporters say legislation isn't the only measure of a good leader. Simpson, they say, shines when it comes to interacting with citizens and empathizing with the poverty many Cincinnatians live in, since she herself grew up in poverty.

But is that enough to qualify someone to be a big-city mayor? Or a reason to vote for her instead of incumbent Mayor John Cranley, a fellow Democrat? Some political experts are doubtful.

"Some people use service on the council to get things done, some people use the council to get seen and known," said David Niven, a University of Cincinnati political science professor. "Simpson's been busy getting seen and known."

Niven added: "Getting consequential stuff done is hard in Cincinnati – harder than in Ohio's other big cities where there's a stronger mayor and typically a more unified council. Nonetheless, Simpson's campaign is based on her not being John Cranley, rather than based on Simpson's accomplishments on council."

Simpson has a different vision for the mayor's office than Cranley, who's known as a doer. On the campaign trail, she has painted herself as the anti-Cranley – her, warm and engaging vs. him, hard-charging and abrasive.

“I consider myself a cheerleader and ambassador first,” Simpson told The Enquirer. In that way she would follow in the footsteps of former Mayor Mark Mallory, a mentor of hers.

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Simpson has proposed fewer than two dozen ordinances during her time at City Hall, including two cases in which she just rewrote tax districts Cranley proposed.

In her first term, under the old two-year system, Simpson mostly agreed with Mallory's initiatives, including his plan to build the streetcar.

In her current term, Simpson has embarked on four big causes with mixed results and fought public battles against popular ideas, most recently trying to get Children's Hospital to put more money into Avondale in exchange for expansion approvals. Political watchers called the demand – ultimately unsuccessful – a major misstep, something she had avoided in the primary en route to a double-digit victory.

Six-year legislative record

An Enquirer review of Simpson's record found:

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Mayoral candidate, current city council member, Yvette Simpson answers the opening question during the 2017 Mayoral Forum hosted by the Cincinnati NAACP and Prince Hall Masons at the Community Acton Agency in the Bond Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati on Tuesday, March 28, 2017.(Photo: Sam Greene, The Enquirer)

• She led on toughening human trafficking laws. When Simpson came to City Hall, she reframed prostitution as human trafficking. Seen through that prism, those who provide sexual services became victims, and council passed four laws toughening penalties for soliciting prostitutes. Money seized from increased fines funded a human trafficking sweep during the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

No one would say the problem has been wiped out. But Simpson said there has been progress on West McMicken in CUF.

Said Viann Barnett, a program director at Off the Streets: "She is an advocate for empowering women. Before Yvette, human trafficking was happening, but nobody was talking about it. But she said I want to make a difference. She exposed that it was happening in our area."

• She advocated for jobs for youth. The city's summer youth employment program had almost been eliminated when Simpson came onto council in 2011, chopped to help cover deficits during the recession. But she revived it, and the city has gradually increased the number of teens it has put to work. This past summer, the number topped 600.

Teens work in park maintenance, the building department, and with the police and fire departments. Simpson tells a story about a girl who was depressed and almost committed suicide. But the teenager made friends in the fire cadet program and seems to be on the right track now, Simpson said.

"My office took the entire program over and ran it from 2012 until 2016 when it was transferred to city administration," she said. "It went from an unaccountable program with no metrics to a strategic program that made sure every dollar was accounted for and each young person got a positive opportunity."

• She worked to give city employees parental leave. She worked on the plan to establish a parental leave and benefits policy for city employees, although there was a war for credit between Simpson and Cranley before their ideas merged in the final legislation. Under the plan, workers have more time off following the birth or adoption of a child.

• She championed small businesses. In 2012, Simpson created the Small Business Advisory Committee, a group of business leaders and city officials whose mission is to be the voice of small business owners. A year later, she proposed a one-stop shop for small businesses to get information on permitting, funding and mentoring. That morphed into the city assigning one person in the permitting department to help small businesses.

Simpson's list of accomplishments is short compared with that of Cranley, who has much to tout from his council terms that lasted most of the 2000s. During his term he introduced a ban on racial profiling; helped craft the city's historic policing agreement; passed the city's first living wage law; created tax district to help fund projects; added disability, gender, and sexual orientation to the hate crimes ordinance; spurred the Fountain Square renovation; halted a bus fare increase; and created The Banks working group.

"To run Cincinnati and to run it well you have to have big ideas and be able to turn them into reality," said Tim Burke, longtime chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party. "I don’t think Yvette comes close to matching that."

Burke is personally supporting Cranley, but the local party decided not to endorse in the mayor's race.

In recent years it's Simpson's battles with Cranley that have propelled her into the news. There was this year's fight over the Children's Hospital expansion and Cranley's 2016 push for raises for city union workers. On the latter, Simpson initially was against interfering with the city administration's contract negotiations with the unions, but ultimately voted for the wage hike.

City union members remain upset with Simpson.

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City Councilwoman Yvette Simpson talks to protesters as they march on Ninth Street toward Interstate 75 after the trial of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing was declared a mistrial, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, Cincinnati.(Photo: The Enquirer/Kareem Elgazzar)

For Simpson, it's people first

Simpson's brand of leadership is focused on people rather than policies – interacting one-on-one and being a public presence during hard times. She took the lead in upping money for outside human services programs that help people in times of need. It had been slashed to practically nothing during the recession. She, along with Vice Mayor David Mann, helped restore some of the money in 2015. And earlier this year, she proposed adding $350,000 to human services spending, bringing it to $4.3 million in total spending.

"It's a big deal for the organizations it helps," said Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition. "Yvette Simpson stuck her neck out and said the money was important."

And when the city earlier this year rolled into Mount Auburn with the city's Neighborhood Enhancement Program, which targets building code violations, litter and hotspots for crime, Simpson calmed neighborhood concerns.

It wasn't different than past cleanup efforts in other neighborhoods, but residents – many elderly – feared they could lose their homes.

Simpson headed up the hill to a community neighborhood meeting, building department officials in tow. By the end, residents knew why citations were being issued and how to solve issues. And she assuaged fears that developers would seize their property.

Simpson also was the face of city preparedness for the aftermath of both of the trials where former University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing faced charges of murder in the 2015 fatal shooting of Sam DuBose during a traffic stop.

Cranley worked behind the scenes to make sure the police department was ready and resources were in place, but Simpson, a lawyer, held informational meetings telling the community what to expect. And when both trials ended in mistrials, Simpson stood with protesters, saying, "If you want to protest, do it peacefully."

“I think a lot of people felt the public officials didn’t care about Sam DuBose’s family or the African American community,” said Donyetta Bailey, president of the Black Lawyers Association, which educated the public about how the trial would work. "But (Simpson) cared. She even protested outside the courthouse in the rain when there was a second hung jury.

"She showed public officials were willing to meet you where you are and willing to fight and that’s important to being a good mayor.”